echoemb, what size quilt are you trying to make? will you be doing all of the blocks? the reason that i ask is that, with 6.5" blocks and not making any other changes to the sashing or height of the tris, your quilt will turn out to be 110x110. your tris would then be 7 wide by 8 tall. if you want to keep the tris in the same proportion as the original quilt, they would be 7x11.5, making the quilt 117x117 - very large indeed if that is what you want to do, it would probably be best to get a custom tri ruler made, as previously discussed last week custom ruler

Last edited by QuiltnNan; 02-26-2012 at 06:38 AM.

Nancy in western NYbefore you speak THINKT – is it True? H – is it Helpful? I – is it Inspiring? N – is it Necessary? K – is it Kind?

TymeToShine, thanks for the encouragement. I just printed out A-9 in foundation mode as it looks like the best way to do that one. I just don't know how to decide how big a piece of fabric to choose for behind the paper. I hate wasting too much fabric

Nancy in western NYbefore you speak THINKT – is it True? H – is it Helpful? I – is it Inspiring? N – is it Necessary? K – is it Kind?

Try holding your foundation up to a light and placing your fabric on the back to cover your space plus a generous seam allowance. Cut larger than you think you need when you first start...until you get the hang of it. Sew, make sure it covers the space and trim to 1/4" seam allowance or less. Trust me...a little extra fabric until you get the hang of it is worth it to minimize the frog stitching. Once you get going with this technique, scraps will work just fine for these small blocks.

echoemb, what size quilt are you trying to make? will you be doing all of the blocks? the reason that i ask is that, with 6.5" blocks and not making any other changes to the sashing or height of the tris, your quilt will turn out to be 110x110. your tris would then be 7 wide by 8 tall. if you want to keep the tris in the same proportion as the original quilt, they would be 7x11.5, making the quilt 117x117 - very large indeed if that is what you want to do, it would probably be best to get a custom tri ruler made, as previously discussed last week custom ruler

QuiltnNan: Thanks for the help. I don't plan on doing a quilt 100x100 as it won't go on my bed. I have dogs and something that I spend this much time doing, is not going to be a dog blanket. SO...that being said, I will probably aim for maybe 2 twin/queen sized quilts and give them to my nieces with alittle something left over for a wall hanging. I am so enjoying making these blocks so I'll certainly have to figure something out to do with all these blocks. Again, thanks I think the tri I got at 144% is the right size of 7X8 and I will get a plexiglass template..

I think they look great QuiltnNan! Did you see the tip a while back on using the Crayola drawing pad paper for paper piecing? I bet you would like that to start paper piecing.

I went to Wal*Mart and I looked at the doodle pad by Crayola. The paper seems too opaque to be able to see the fabric on the other side. Did I look at the right pad? The paper had the texture of news print.

Well it looks like I'm not going to do the Tri's as I'm not sure my measurements are right and I don't want to make a whole bunch of these and find out that they don't fit. My blocks are 6.5" and had problems trying to print the tris at what I think are the right size. (144% increase). Would love to be able to figure out the width and height to make sure my template is the right size.

At 144% your tris will increase from 5x8 to 7 1/4" x 11 1/2" [ the exact is 7.22 x 11.55 but this is truly close enough to 7.25 x 11.50] The problem you will encounter printing is that regular paper size is 8 1/2 x 11. My suggestion would be to take the pages of the book [if you have the dear jane book] to a copy place and increase by 144% or you will need to buy sheets of legal paper for your own copier.

That's one of the things I don't like about pp'ing. And almost without fail, if I try to save fabric I cut it too short, have to take it off and cut another piece - wasting even more fabric!

Originally Posted by QuiltnNan

TymeToShine, thanks for the encouragement. I just printed out A-9 in foundation mode as it looks like the best way to do that one. I just don't know how to decide how big a piece of fabric to choose for behind the paper. I hate wasting too much fabric